ASUS A7M266-D Dual Athlon Motherboard

_, 13th December 2001

For those of you who think that two processors are better than one, ASUS just announced the release of the A7M266-D socket A motherboard with dual Athlon MP processor support.

For those of you who think that two processors are better than one, ASUS just announced the release of the A7M266-D socket A motherboard with dual Athlon MP processor support. The A7M266-D incorporates the AMD-760 MPX chipset (also just announced by AMD) and supports up to two Athlon MP processors, DDR memory configurations, and 64-bit PCI slots. The ATX form-factor motherboard also supports also supports single socket A processors including AMD Athlon XP, Athlon, and Duron. The A7M266-D supports up to 4GB (4 DIMMs) of registered or 2GB (2 DIMMs) of unbuffered PC2100/PC1600 ECC/non-ECC DDR DIMMs. It also lets you use a standard ATX power supply. Other features include ASUS COP (CPU Overheating Protection), which is a hardware protection circuit that automatically shuts down the system power before temperatures are high enough to permanently damage your CPU (hmmm, wonder if Tom and Frank's CPU weenie roast had anything to do with this new feature?). The temperature is directly monitored from the thermal diode on Athlon MP and XP processors, providing temperature readings in real-time. Also included is an onboard warning light that prevents you from installing incompatible AGP cards (i.e. 3.3 V) that could damage the motherboard. The laundry list of features also includes a 200/266MHz front-side-bus (FSB), AMD 762 north bridge, AMD 768 south bridge, 2 x Ultra-DMA 33/66/100, AGP Pro slot with AGP4X support, 2 x PCI 66/33-MHz 64/32-bit slots, 3 x PCI 33-MHz 32-bit slots, C-Media CMI8738 6-Channel audio controller, WFM 2.0,DMI 2.0,WOL,WOR, Chassis Intrusion, SM Bus, and the ASUS PC Probe system health monitoring software. The ASUS A7M266-D is shipping in quantities now. We haven't gotten word on pricing yet, but at least we dug up a picture.